Whereas it’s very early to be making sweeping selections about WNBA MVP candidates, there are just a few gamers who’ve separated themselves within the bigger conversations across the league. Napheesa Collier, Allisha Grey, and Caitlin Clark appear to be the names floating round most continuously amongst followers and media as the present prime picks, which is backed up by all three being within the prime six in betting odds.
In keeping with Fanduel, Collier (-340) is the present favourite, whereas Clark (+280) has the second-best odds, adopted by Breanna Stewart of the Liberty (+5,000) and a three-way tie between Grey, Mercury star Alyssa Thomas and reigning winner A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces (+7,500).
There are such a lot of issues that voters can take into consideration when making their MVP alternative. Statistics are a software to tell selections, however they shouldn’t be the one issue that determines awards. Typically, a few of these deep-dive statistics can be utilized as tiebreakers if a voter is struggling to decide on between two or three candidates.
As an train, let’s check out the statistics of Collier, Clark and Grey side-by-side, (all numbers through Her Hoop Stats):
MVP Candidate Statistics
| Stats | Napheesa Collier | Caitlin Clark | Allisha Grey |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stats | Napheesa Collier | Caitlin Clark | Allisha Grey |
| Staff report | 11-1 | 6-6 | 8-4 |
| Video games performed | 11 | 7 | 12 |
| Factors per recreation | 24.4 | 19.9 | 20.4 |
| Rebounds per recreation | 8.5 | 5.7 | 5.4 |
| Assists per recreation | 3.6 | 8.7 | 4.5 |
| Area Objective % | 52.40% | 41.70% | 50.60% |
| Area Targets Tried per recreation | 17.2 | 15.4 | 13 |
| Area Targets Made per recreation | 9 | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| Three-Level % | 42.10% | 35.50% | 42.30% |
| Three-Pointers Tried per recreation | 3.5 | 8.9 | 5.9 |
| Three-Pointers Made per recreation | 1.5 | 3.1 | 2.5 |
| Free Throw % | 93.10% | 79.40% | 81.40% |
| Steals per recreation | 1.8 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Blocks per recreation | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 |
| Turnovers per recreation | 2.3 | 5.3 | 1.5 |
| Utilization Fee % | 29.80% | 28.80% | 21.90% |
| Offensive Ranking | 121.6 | 101.3 | 133.6 |
| Defensive Ranking | 90.8 | 94.3 | 97.4 |
| Win Shares | 2.9 | 0.9 | 2.9 |
Just a few issues come out from this chart. The Minnesota Lynx have the very best report not solely amongst these three gamers however in the whole league, which is one thing that carries lots of weight within the MVP dialog. Except the Lynx expertise a tough patch, they are going to possible keep within the High-2 of the league standings all 12 months, giving Collier an edge over her Fever and Dream counterparts.
Taking place to precise participant stats, Collier additionally leads in each factors per recreation (24.4) and rebounds per recreation (8.5) — which is sensible, given her dimension and place as a ahead. She’s a full 4 factors per recreation forward of Grey and 4.5 forward of Clark. Clark takes the highest spot for assists, although, which additionally is sensible resulting from her elite playmaking means and place as her workforce’s main level guard.
Collier once more takes the highest spot within the three subject objective classes — tried, made, and share — displaying off her means to attain effectively. Grey’s subject objective share is just not too far off from Collier’s, however Clark’s drops off resulting from her high-volume taking pictures model. That’s not a nasty factor, it’s simply the best way Clark performs. It’s why she has each the very best three-pointers tried and made numbers — take extra pictures, make extra pictures. Collier then has the very best free-throw share by a large margin. It’s Grey, although, who shoots from distance with essentially the most accuracy, simply barely edging Collier out (42.3% in comparison with Collier’s 42.1%).
Calculating every participant’s True Taking pictures share, which comes from dividing their factors per scoring try by 2, Grey has the higher hand. True taking pictures is used as a technique to see a participant’s taking pictures stats once you account for the added worth of three-point pictures. Grey leads this stat right here with 65% true taking pictures on the season, Collier is at 63%, and Clark has a real taking pictures share of 56.5% to date.
In the case of the historically defensive stats, steals and blocks per recreation, Collier once more comes out on prime. The blocks once more aren’t stunning, given she has the dimensions benefit over each Grey and Clark, however her means to get 1.8 steals per recreation is spectacular. Grey commits the fewest turnovers per recreation of the three, solely giving the ball up 1.5 occasions per recreation in comparison with Collier’s 2.3 and Clark’s 5.3 (one thing she leads the league in).
From there, we dive into Her Hoop Stats’ extra distinctive statistical classes. Utilization fee measures the proportion of performs whereas a participant is on the ground that they use to shoot, get to the road, or commit a turnover, a class which Collier leads with a rating of 29.8%. Offensive and defensive scores are generally used statistics in basketball to measure the factors scored and allowed per 100 possessions when a person participant is on the court docket for his or her squad. Allisha Grey leads in offensive score with 133.6, which additionally occurs to be within the a hundredth percentile league-wide. Collier, alternatively, leads in defensive score, solely permitting 90.8 factors per 100 possessions, within the 97th percentile league-wide.
Apparently sufficient, Her Hoop Stats ranks the very best gamers in any WNBA season by Win Shares over another class. They outline this stat as “a complicated statistic that approximates the overall variety of wins a participant produces for his or her workforce by their play on the offensive and defensive finish of the court docket.” Each Collier and Grey lead the whole WNBA on this class with a Win Share rating of two.9, whereas Clark has a rating of 0.9. This makes extra sense given Collier and Grey have every performed 10+ video games, whereas Clark hasn’t even reached 10 but resulting from sitting out together with her earlier damage.
Once more, these stats aren’t the whole image in the case of MVP voting, and it’s nonetheless early sufficient for them to vary. Collier presently leads in 11 of the classes, and ties in 1, Grey leads in 4 and ties in 1, and Clark leads in 3 classes. The conversations round MVP within the WNBA proper now are leaning in direction of Collier, and statistically, she is main the pack. It is going to be attention-grabbing to see how these numbers change at a later level within the WNBA season, but when the voting have been taking place in the present day (and I had a vote, which I don’t), my MVP choose can be Napheesa Collier.
